River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-08-18
AN ENcuKsIoN no DEATH.

men were employed.
AN EXCURSION TO DEATH
An excursion to Niagara Falls, projected
by the Toledo, Peoria and Western R. r.,
left Peoria at O'Clock Wednesday evening
carrying $50 passengers, in six sleepers, six
day coaches and chair cars, 3 baggage cars
being added to the train. Every birth was oe-
cupied and in each of the other cars were 60
passengers, the excursionists being drawn
from large area of country about Peoria.
Two engines were employed to draw the
heavy train as it set out ON its
long journey intending to cross
the state of Indiana and strike
the Niagara route at Detroit Mich. The
train passed Chatsworth. Ill, II miles from
Peoria, little after midnight Thursday
morning without stopping. its momentum
then being nearly a mile "A minute. Three
miles from ChatSwOTth. midway from that
station TO Pipers City, Ford Co, HIS. there
Is little slough and where the railroad
track crosses run about ten feet deep and
fifteen feet wide Over this was stretched
an ordinary wooden trestle bridge, and as
the excursion train came laundering down
on II what was the horror of the engineer
on the front engine when he saw that this
leaped the bright flames and the next
instant he was among them. There was
no chance to stop.
Had there been warning, il would have
taken half a mile to stop that onrushing
mass of wood, iron and humanity. and the
train was within one hundred yards of the
red-tOngued messengers of de tn before
they flashed their fatal signals into the en-
gineer's face. But he passed over in safety
the first engine keeping the rails. As it
went over the bridge fell beneath it. and il
could only have been the terrific speed of
the train which saved the lives of the en-
gineer and his fireman. But the next engine
wentdOwn and instantly the deed of death
was done. Car crashed into car: coaches
piled one on top Of the other, and in the
twlnkling of an eye nearly one hundred
people found instant death and many
more were so hurt they could not live. As
for the wounded, they were everywhere.
4 be six slaepers escaped but the six
day coaches We're telesCOped as cars never
we're before, three of them being pressed in
to just space enough for one Every pas
Senger in the first car met death and
but four people came out alive from the
second one. The bridge was still on fire
and the wrecked cars were laying on and
around the burning embers. the air was
filled with the cries of the wounded and the
shrieks of those about To- die The groans of
men, the scre ans OF women united to make
an appalling sound, and above all could be
heard the agonizing ciss of little children,
as ia some instances they lay pinned along
side their parents.
There was no water with which to com
bat the fire, nothing but the drouth stone
baked earth available, and nothing but the
fingers Of a few men who retained the pres
ence of mind 10 work, to dig into the earth
for means to stop the awful fire. The tall
OF the next four hours about that wreck
deties all description, as all around We're
men, women and children who might have
been saved, but who had TO meet most
merciless form of Death. Helpless as were
the workers, heroic work was done and as
sistance was sent as soon as 1t could
be summoned from ChatswOrth, For
est, Pipers City and Peoria.
One hundred and eighteen was the awful
poll of the dead, while the wounded mum
Der four times as many. The full tale of the
dead cannot, however, be It'd vet for days
ChatswOrth was turned into a morgue to-
day. The town hall, the engine house, the
depot were all full of dead bodies, while ev-
cry house in the little village had its quota
of the wounded. There were over
100 corp es lying IN the extern
ported dead houses and every man
or woman was turned into an amateur but
Jealous nurse Over in a lumber yard the
noise of hammers and saws rang out in the
air and in it busy carpenters We're making
rough collins to carry to their homes the
dead bodies of the excursiOnists who, twelve
hours previous, had left their homes full of
pleasurable expectations of the enjoyment
they were going to have during the vaca-
ton which had begun.
This tale of horror cannot he closed with
out adding TO il feature that increases its
dismay, the robbery of the dead and dying,
by parties apparently unknown. Bodies
were plundered of watches, money and any
valuables, even rings being taken from the
fingers of the dead. This gave rise to
rumor generally discredited, however, that
the bridge had been set on fire to wreck the
train, that robbery might be accomplished.
The latest report from the Toledo, Peoria
q Western disaster makes the number of
dead 156 A coroner's inquest is in pro
gress and the Railroad Commissioners will
make an investigation regarding the respon-
sibility for the accident. If that be found
to rest on the railroad company, it viii he
called upon TO pay Sl,O0O,00O, TO the rea-
tives of the dead and those injured, sum
that would completely bankrupt the road.
The testimony thus far seems to favor the
theory that the bridge was purposely set on
fire. presumably for plumber.
Peoria. Ills, witnesses daily funerals of
the unfortunates who lost their lives in the
Toledo. Peoria & Western disaster. and
thousands gather at the cemetery to witness
the sad ceremonies. The interment of ten
took place on the 18th and as many on the
18th. IN the presence of a mourning com
munity At other places the same scenes
were enacted, demonstrations of public
grief and sorrow that bave no parallel
in the history of any generation.
President J. .. Baker of the Illinois
Society OF Engineers and Professor of civil
engineering in the Illinois University, has
made a personal examination of the
problem of the burned bridge at the T. r.
a W., disaster, aud gives it as his opinion
that the incendiary theory has no founda
ton whatever The bridge he says was
strong had it not been weak
eued by fire. He thinks a grass fire left
burning only 40 rods away, by section men,
was driven down TO the bridge by a slight
change of wind
Two deaths have been added to the
Chatsworth roll. The local officers are pre-
pairing reports for the eastern stockholders
with view TO a prompt and amicable ar
with all having claims growing
out of the calamity.